Billie Eilish is setting the record straight that she’s not. “I’ve never really felt like I could relate to girls very well. I love them so much. I love them as people. I’m attracted to them as people. I’m attracted to them for real,” she says in a profile for Variety, discussing her Grammy-nominated Barbie track “What Was I Made For?” She goes on, “I have deep connections with women in my life, the friends in my life, the family in my life. I’m physically attracted to them. But I’m also so intimidated by them and their beauty and their presence.”
The nonchalant way Eilish delivers this information may suggest it’s not a big deal to disclose this information, and of course, in a perfect world, it wouldn’t be. But her remarks are a lot less casual in the context of an incredibly famous young woman who has spent years fending off speculation about her sexuality. In years past, Eilish had declared herself “straight as a ruler” (which is honestly a normal thing to do for a teenager still figuring herself out in a fairly homophobic culture). In 2021, the singer was accused of “queerbaiting” for posting a video of herself with other dancers with the caption “I love women.” Months later, in an interview with Elle, she complained about the excessive attention to every aspect of her life, including her sexuality: “Like, oh yeah, that’s everyone else’s business, right? No. Where’s that energy with men?”
Eilish may now be comfortable making her sexuality public, but she’s still just as frustrated with the double standards for men and women in our culture. Speaking about the way she sometimes used fashion as a shield from commentary about her body, she tells Variety, “Nobody ever says a thing about men’s bodies. If you’re muscular, cool. If you’re not, cool. If you’re rail thin, cool. If you have a dad bod, cool. If you’re pudgy, love it! Everybody’s happy with it. You know why? Because girls are nice. They don’t give a fuck because we see people for who they are!”
It may not be, um, universally true that all girls are nice and not judging others by their appearances. But the 21-year-old pop star is clearly on an evolving journey with these concepts, and she’s certainly experienced society’s double standards firsthand. It can’t be easy to navigate these things from inside the fishbowl of fame, so hopefully she continues to feel safe, protected, and empowered to do so.